


Precious Love

by amirthfulgirl



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Barisi - Freeform, Carisi family is mentioned, Established Relationship, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Rafael’s mother is mentioned, Rita is mentioned, Secret Relationship, Squad finds out, proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:09:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24337180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amirthfulgirl/pseuds/amirthfulgirl
Summary: Rafael and Sonny have been together for three years. They never mentioned it to the SVU squad, Sonny’s has been working with for eight months. But now Rafael proposed.
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 70





	Precious Love

**Author's Note:**

> Had this idea a bit randomly and the immediate urge to write it. I love these two idiots so much.  
> Thank you to Han and Shirin for showing them to me (and also showing me Raúl)!  
> I hope you like it! I’m always happy for feedback and kudos.
> 
> Title taken from the song by James Morrison.
> 
> Also English isn’t my native language and I haven’t written such a long text in English for over a year, so bear with me.

Sonny probably never entered the precinct with a bigger smile plastered on his face than today and that really meant something considering he came into the precinct with a huge smile basically every day. He was still very grateful that he had gotten the opportunity with Manhattan SVU and that he got along so well with the squad. Just that usually made him happy on every other day. But today he was smiling widely due to a very different reason. And it may had something to do with the glinting ring on his hand.

“Wow someone is really living up to his name today”, Fin commented on the smiling Sonny. “Good Morning to you too, Fin” Sonny replied with a hint of sarcasm. As soon as he sat down at his desk Amanda was already at his side. “Sooo who is the lucky one?” She asked with a wide grin, not subtly looking at the ring on Sonny’s finger. “You’ll see at the wedding”, Sonny vaguely replied.

He and Rafael had discussed it when Sonny had joined SVU and they had started working together more often when they were going to tell the squad about them. But Sonny had been unsure, having had bad experiences at his past precincts but also not wanting it to look like he only got the job because he is the boyfriend of one of Manhattan’s best ADAs. But over the past few weeks he had grown more fond of the idea of telling his fellow detectives and the Lieu, but especially before telling Olivia he wanted to talk to Rafael about it because they were good friends after all and he would maybe want to tell her himself.

Amanda’s questioning brought the idea back to the front of his mind. And he made a mental note to talk to Rafael about it at some point this week. Especially after the events from last night which certainly was a big step forward in their relationship. Amanda had known for a few months that Sonny was in a relationship but Sonny had made it clear quite quickly that she wouldn’t get a lot of details out of him. So she accepted it and had only then and now questioned the well-being of Sonny’s significant other or Sonny’s happiness in the relationship.

But now Amanda seemed close to bursting with questions. Before she could ask any of them though, the man in question or more precisely Sonny’s fiancée walked into the squad room. Rafael flashed a small smile in Sonny’s direction and nodded to Amanda before heading to Liv’s office.

“Good morning Rafael. Nice to see you”, Olivia greeted him from behind her desk. “Morning Olivia. I hope you had a nice weekend. How’s Noah?” Rafael responded while handing over a few files he wanted to give back to her. By doing so his own new item of jewellery on his hand could barely be missed so of course Olivia caught in quickly. “He’s great. But you seem to have had a nice weekend as well.” She said knowingly with a huge smile, pulling Rafael’s hand closer, so she could have a better look. Rafael’s cheek turned slightly pink at that comment. “Yeah, yeah I did."

“Are you ever gonna tell me who the man is that’s been making you so happy?” Rafael pulled his hand back and subtly looked down at the ground while his cheeks were still slightly pink. Olivia had known about Rafael’s relationship from the start basically because of course she had noticed the moment Sonny had stepped into Rafael’s life immediately, just because of the fact how much happier Rafael had been apparently. But Rafael had never really gotten around to telling her that actually her by now very own detective was the love of his life. “Well I mean you’ll probably get to know him at the wedding.” Rafael somehow tried to get around answering the question properly.

In this moment he really wanted to tell her about Sonny, but he couldn’t, not if he hadn’t asked Sonny beforehand. He knew that Sonny was always a bit unsure when to come out to the squad about his sexuality or his relationship with their ADA and Rafael definitely didn’t want to pressure him because it was Sonny’s colleagues after all. But at the same time he didn’t have that many friends, okay to be honest, he had two, Olivia and Rita. So having to hide it from one of the few people closest to him wasn’t that great. And although Rita knew about his relationship with Sonny, Rafael barely ever talked about it to her because how much she would tease him so it was often not a subject of discussion either.

Olivia knew when not to ask more questions, so she changed the subject to the case at hand and exchanged a few thoughts on it with Rafael. When Rafael left her office again, he didn’t leave as he normally would but instead walked over to Sonny. “Carisi, can we talk for a moment” Rafael asked, nodding towards the break room where they would have at least a little bit of privacy. “Uh yeah sure.” Sonny responded a slightly confused expression on his face before following Rafael.

“What’s going on, Raf?” Sonny questioned as soon as he had closed the door behind him. “I know that you haven’t told the squad about us yet and I completely understand when you still don’t wanna do it now. But... but Olivia is on of my closest friends and I’m happy and I hate not being able to tell her that you are the one making me happy because I love you Sonny and I want to spend the rest of my life with you and ...”

“Hey hey stop Raf, it’s okay I get it. And you can tell her. Maybe I can even come with you and we can do it right now.” Sonny had stopped Rafael’s rambling with that who looked at him slightly shocked. “What? Really? You would do that? You know you don’t have to, we can wait.” “Raf, it’s okay, I want it. Because I know how important Liv is to you and that it would make you happy and she would know sooner or later anyway. So let’s do it, it’s okay with me.” Sonny reassured Rafael, squeezing his arm. “Okay. So right now?” Rafael questioned, still a bit surprised by the turn of events. Sonny just nodded and smiled at him.

They finally left the break room, now both heading to Olivia’s office, Amanda’s curious eyes following them. Rafael knocked and slowly opened the door. “Um hey, can we talk to you for a second?” “Yeah sure. What’s going on?” Sonny gently pushed Rafael inside with a hand on Rafael’s back closing the door behind him but leaving the blinds open because he had decided they may as well tell Amanda and Fin in some way too.

“So you asked earlier who my uh fiancée is and well we didn’t tell you before today but we’re together.” Rafael somehow got out of his mouth while nervously looking at his hands. “As in you two are engaged?” Liv asks with a wide smile. “Yes we are.” Sonny answered while directing a loving smile at Rafael and pulling him a bit closer by putting an arm around his waist. “Aww I’m so happy for you two!” Liv got up from her chair and rounded her desk to pull them both into a hug.

“You know you could have told me a bit earlier though.” She said with a mocking tone. “Yeah well we kinda missed out on a right moment. Because at first I didn’t want to make it seem like I only got the job because of Rafael and now we’re kinda here already.” “He didn’t get the job because of me. Just to clarify.” Rafael added at the end of Sonny’s explanation.

“Wait so for how long had this been going on?” “3 and a half years. We’ve disclosed already.” Rafael gave as a short answer before leaning a bit more into Sonny’s sideways embrace. „The engagement is on since yesterday though“ Sonny added with a cheeky grin. “Wow and I never knew. And you would think I’m a detective.” Olivia responded with a laugh. “So who was the one to propose?” She asked curiously. “Rafael did.” Sonny announced with a smile while Rafael’s cheek reddened.

~~~

_They both had had a long week but luckily their weekend had been free of any obligations so they had been able to just enjoy the company of the other. This had led to Rafael’s final decision that he was going to propose to Sonny on Sunday evening. He had had the rings for a few months by now but had never really found the right moment for it although the idea itself had been stuck with him for even longer than the time the rings had been laying in the very last corner of his nightstand drawer._

_He still felt like the luckiest man alive to have Sonny by his side and having been able to spend the last three and a half years with him. And hopefully many more to come. Sonny had now even settled in with Manhattan SVU and seemed to have finally found a job and a squad which he absolutely adored. Not that Sonny would actively treat anyone with hostility but with Olivia’s squad there was definitely no need for it._

_They had disclosed to their superiors quite early in their relationship and at some point into their relationship Rafael had eventually told Rita but besides that no one from work ever knew about their relationship. They both knew how gay cops were still treated by their fellow officers so Sonny had never been quite fond of the idea of even coming out to anyone at work let alone tell anyone about his boyfriend._

_They had eventually told Sonny’s family, because Sonny’s sisters were of course very noisy and didn’t let Sonny very easily off the hook when they asked about his apparent relationship. Sonny’s whole family had been very accepting despite their catholic background and by now Rafael was kind of a part of the family as well._

 _Even Rafael’s mother was included in the picture about two and half years in when Rafael casually had mentioned that he was indeed in a relationship after his mother’s had tried to get involved in his love life once again by trying to set him up with a daughter of one of his mother’s friend. Rafael had clarified to her several times before that he was not interested in woman but his mother had always kept a little bit hope that he might actually change his sexual interests. When Rafael then finally introduced her to Sonny she was over the moon for him though, however Sonny’s charm may have played a big part in it as well._

_Rafael had actually consulted Sonny’s sisters and parents and Rita when the idea of proposing to Sonny had started to become the main aspect his mind was occupied with in his free time._

_So on Sunday morning he had told Sonny that he would cook them dinner with one of his grandmother’s recipes that he (and Sonny) adored but he hadn’t come around to cooking again in quite some time. Luckily the cooking went well and after dinner they moved to the living room, both of them with a glass of wine in hand. They had moved in together about three years ago because to be honest already back then Rafael knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Sonny._

_“You’ve been rather quiet tonight, Raf.” Sonny pointed out when they had both settled on the couch. “I’ve just been enjoying spending such a lovely evening with you, Sonny. I already talk so much during the week.” Rafael answered with an easy smile. After another small moment of silence and an internal debate later, Rafael decided that he was gonna do it. Now was his perfect opportunity._

_„I actually wanted to ask you something.” Rafael started while placing his class of wine on the coffee table and reaching into his trouser pocket to pull out the rings but keeping them hidden in his hand for now. He slowly got up from the couch, took a deep breath before finally kneeling down in front of Sonny and holding out one of the rings. Sonny’s face had a mix of awe and shock written across it and he quickly placed his own wine glass on the book table beside him._

_“Will you marry me, Sonny?” “Oh my god, Raf, yes yes of course.” Sonny immediately replied before Rafael could barely finish the question. He quickly got up to his feet again. (Or as quickly as a almost fifty year old man could get back up on his feet after he had just asked the most important question of his life, and he had already asked a lot of questions in his life.) He leaned over to Sonny, who pulled him into an embrace and whispering quiet yeses into his ear. Before pulling away and capturing his lips in a passionate kiss._

 _When they parted again Sonny looked at Rafael expectantly but still smiling from ear to ear. “Put that ring on me already, Raf. I love you and I wanna marry you.” Without hesitating another second, he took the ring that was meant for Sonny, took his hand and slipped it onto his finger. When he looked up into Sonny’s beautiful blue eyes again, he couldn’t help but smile back at him before kissing him again._

~~~

“Well I’m more than happy for you too and I think so is Amanda.” Olivia added while pointing towards the squad room where Amanda was excitingly staring in the direction of Liv’s office with an almost as huge smile on her face as Sonny had had when he came in this morning. Rafael looked at Sonny a bit panicked, knowing that Sonny had been so unsure of telling the squad. But instead of looking worried, Sonny had as always a smile plastered across his face and without hesitating pulled Rafael in for a kiss. It only lasted a few seconds and when they parted Sonny whispered “I love you” against Rafael’s lips.

“Aww you two are very cute but please save this for Rafael’s office or your home.” Olivia couldn’t hold back a smile though. “And now get out of my office and I hope you will survive Amanda’s questioning, Sonny.” “See you tomorrow, Olivia.” Rafael just added before pulling Sonny towards the door.

“I’m gonna leave you with Amanda and see you later at home, okay? And I love you.” Rafael said quietly to Sonny so only he could hear as soon as they were just outside Olivia's office. “I love you too. See you later and tell Rita.” Sonny responded with a reassuring smile. Rafael just planted a kiss on Sonny’s cheek before heading towards the elevator and leaving the precinct for the day.

„Sooo when were you going to tell me that your lucky man of all people is Barba?“ Amanda immediately asked Sonny in an accusatory tone but with a big smile as soon as he walked back towards his desk. „Uh... soon?“ Sonny sheepishly responded. „I‘m only joking Sonny, it‘s okay. But you to have to tell me more at some point! I’m so happy for you, come here.“ Amanda pulled him up from his chair before engulfing him in a big hug.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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